Installing to a USB drive

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JPinAZ
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Installing to a USB drive

Post by JPinAZ »

The beta was able to be installed & run from a USB drive. I figured the official release would be the same, but it doesn't seem to work the same.

I installed to a USB drive using my desktop & tried to run it from my laptop but it asked for my registration info. Luckily I saved my license key & was able to get it running.

Is the license validation not set up the same as the beta?
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jeff
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Re: Installing to a USB drive

Post by jeff »

JPinAZ wrote:The beta was able to be installed & run from a USB drive. I figured the official release would be the same, but it doesn't seem to work the same.

I installed to a USB drive using my desktop & tried to run it from my laptop but it asked for my registration info. Luckily I saved my license key & was able to get it running.

Is the license validation not set up the same as the beta?
No it isn't. Several things have changed for the production version, including moving the location of the license file.
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Post by FrostyTheBeerman »

I have many USB drives but have never thought of installing a program on them, I guess i don't understand it. To the original poster, what would be the advantage of installing a program on a USB drive ?

All programs will install into the OS registry, so you wouldn't be able to move the usb drive from computer to computer to use the program anyway.

I guess I don't get the point. BeerToolsPro is not a huge program to begin with so I don't understand why somebody would want to do this. :wink:

Perhaps I don't understand the question, or I'm missing out on a big advantage of a USB drive. Right now, I use my USB / FireWire external drives for data storage ( very large digital photographs ).

Any englightenment would be appreciated 8)
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Post by PieOPah »

Not every program uses the registry. Some programs even when using the registry will write info to it if it doesn't already exist.

I guess that the advantage of installing onto a USB drive is that you can easily move around with your installation without the need to take your entire harddrive.

When I used to play World of Warcraft, people would often talk about installing the game on their USB drives and then taking the drive to university with them and play from the insallation on there.
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Post by JPinAZ »

Yeah, it's for portability. It's not an external hard drive, it's a 2GB thumb drive that can attach to a keychain. I have a few other programs (Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.) on it as well.
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billvelek
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USB Thumb Drive

Post by billvelek »

I can see where that would be cool, since I don't have a lap top. For instance, when my wife and I go to my son's house to babysit our grandkids, I could play with the program. I can see where the concerns might arise about how many copies are out there, but if use was tied into logging onto the Internet where BTP could verify that the copy for the registered user is currently being used by only one computer, I can't see how there would be any problems with piracy.

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Re: USB Thumb Drive

Post by PieOPah »

billvelek wrote:but if use was tied into logging onto the Internet where BTP could verify that the copy for the registered user is currently being used by only one computer
I don't think you need to be online to use so there are no checks. Besides, you are allowed to use the software on 2 computers
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USB Thumb Drive

Post by billvelek »

I know you don't need to be online, except to access recipes. But I'm guessing -- not being a programmer, this is strictly a guess -- that the program can be fixed to detect if it is running from a thumb drive, in which event it could be made to require confirmation of registration/password or whatever before it could be used. I'd be happy to live with that limitation. Otherwise, what is to prevent someone from making lots of copies on thumb drives to defeat the copyright. I don't give away software, or sell it. But many people do. I can live with some balancing of the developers interests in preventing piracy and my interest in having a bit of portabilitiy. That's all I was saying. If not for a compromise, I think you will find that you will never be able to run this program from a thumbdrive, which wouldn't be the end of the world, either. It would just be neat for me to be able to take my program with me to use elsewhere, the same as I might carry a book with me.

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Post by JPinAZ »

BTP can be installed on a thumb drive, you just need to use your license key with each computer you attach it to.
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Post by Jind_Brewer »

I use Mojopac to run Beer Tools from a USB drive - it allows you to run a completely separate Windows XP instance and keep applications, browsing, anything profile related completely contained from the host system.

http://www.mojopac.com/
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